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Science and Technology of Energetic Materials

Vol.80, No.5 (2020)

Research paper

Effect of boron and aluminum diboride on ignition of high-energy materials
Alexander G. Korotkikh, Ivan V. Sorokin, Ekaterina A. Selikhova, and Vladimir A. Arkhipov
p.189-193

Abstract

The high heat of oxidation makes boron and diborides attractive as a metal fuel additive in high-energy materials (HEM) and solid propellants. This study investigates the laser ignition for the HEM samples based on ammonium perchlorate, ammonium nitrate, energetic binder and boron-containing components. Micron-sized powders of aluminum, amorphous boron and aluminum diboride were used as the metal fuels in composition of the AP/AN/PMVT/Me HEM samples. We defined the ignition delay time, the surface temperature of the reaction layer during the heating and ignition, the kinetic parameters for the aluminum-based and boron-based HEM samples. It was found that the use of amorphous boron in the HEM sample leads to a decrease in the ignition delay time of the sample by a factor of 2.2-2.8 due to high chemical activity and a difference in the oxidation mechanism of boron particles. The use of aluminum diboride powder in the HEM sample makes it possible to reduce the ignition delay time by 1.7-2.2 times at the same heat flux density in comparison with the aluminum-based HEM sample. It was also shown that the use of boron components leads to an increase in the maximum surface temperature at the time of the flame appearance and to a decrease in the activation energy of ignition.

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Keywords

high-energy material, amorphous boron, aluminum diboride, ignition delay time, ignition temperature

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